Family Portrait
by sharonroslin
Summary: This story unrolls the lives of Sharon and her children, when Emily is coming back home to get married, and she finds herself with all three of them and some problems to help them with. DISCLAIMER: I own none of the characters, I was just having some fun with imagination. THANKS to my friends A. & SissiCuddles for betaing and Elena for the spectacular cover image!
1. Chapter 1 - Sharon

**Saturday night.**

The clock had just hit **eight**. For almost a year, every Saturday night at eight, Sharon Raydor would be adding the latest adjustments to her outfit to go out with her partner Andy Flynn. It wasn't one of those Saturdays, though. She withdrew her phone from the purse and checked for any missed call or message, the first thing to come to her attention was his name "Andy". She wanted so badly to give him a call and ask him to run there to her, to talk and clarify the misunderstanding.

" _I am not sure_ _ **I am**_ _the one you want",_ were his last words, and how much they hurt. She had wanted to slap him and also cry, but she had instead remained there, unmoved, watching him go and saying it was better to take some distance to think. He was breaking up with her, but he didn't want to say the words.

Sharon felt the fire in her eyes as tears started to fall down. She loved him, she knew it, but never had the guts to take those words out of her mouth, and it was too late now. In the past months, every time Andy had spent the night over, she had been sitting on the bed watching him sleep and she had whispered them, three simple words that changed everything " _I love you"_. Three words that meant she was ready to give herself to him, not only physically as it had already happened, but also emotionally. She was putting her heart into his hands, but now he would never knew she did.

The phone distracted her thoughts. A single beep brought her back to reality. Sharon closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she would read.

" _LANDED! Baby's home to mama in 1hr. Resist!"_ Ever since Emily left home the first time to go to New York, her nickname wasn't _honey_ anymore but had become _baby_ , which in the beginning really annoyed her but with time passing she started to like it making it seems like Emily had never grown up and would always be her little dancing star. Sharon and Emily missed each other very much and every time they reunited, according to Ricky, was an exaggerated display of affection, with all the "Mommys" and "babys" flying from their mouths. It seemed like it had been decades since they had seen each other instead of just a few months.

Sharon would call her children every day, and while Ricky was able to visit more often, Emily had been very busy with the season and sometimes she would only have time to message a quick " _Busy bee and tired baby. Miss you mommy."_ But no other message made Sharon more happy and teary than the one she received on a night in December, a few days before Christmas " _Brilliant night with a surprise ending"_ and attached was a photo of her hand with an engagement ring. Sharon had jumped on the bed in happiness and screamed so loud that Rusty had ran into the room armed with a lamp thinking someone had broken into the house and was assaulting her. Emily was going to finally settle and get married to her long time partner and co-worker of her company, in Los Angeles where both came from. Sharon had met him a few times and really liked the man, he seemed really sweet and caring and very passionate about his job just as much as Emily. Sharon and Rusty had also met his parents and they seemed like good people too, a pediatrician and a lawyer, who sadly knew Jackson Raydor very well and didn't like him that much, which seemed to be a common thought of everyone that had ever met him. It didn't really surprise Sharon.

Holding back her tears she tried to type a reply that seemed vaguely appropriate " _Hurry, mama needs to hug her baby!"_ She knew that such a short message would have somehow alarmed Emily about her status, but all she needed at the moment was her arms, solid and warm around her baby girl's shoulders.

Sharon went to the kitchen to pour herself some wine for a bubble bath treatment that was waiting for her. Opening the fridge door, the first thing that jumped to her sight was the pancakes from that morning that Andy had prepared for her with a note on them, " _EAT ME. Breakfast is the most important meal, don't leave me alone here A."_ with a small face that was smiling at her. Less than 14 hours before they had been discussing her absurd habit to eat only one pancake after he had cooked breakfast for her, and here she was now crying over a smiley face in an empty house. The urge to run to the phone was strong again, to find his name and make a call. She ran through the contacts, clicked on his photo and placed her thumb on the green button. After a few rings she hung up. It was wrong to call him, he asked her for space and she wasn't giving it to him. Andy had taken a week off work for sickness and it was clear that he wanted to avoid her. While her thoughts went on how wrong it was for her to call him, her phone rang. His photo appeared on the display. She let it ring, until it stopped. Sharon didn't stop looking at the display, while his image disappeared from it for just a few seconds, to reappear with a message " _Sharon, are you okay?"_

She made a mistake, making him worry something was wrong and now she couldn't just ignore him and not reply. Knowing Andy, he would have run to her and broke through the door thinking of the worst. In her heart, Sharon wanted him to run to her but she knew it was not right and decided to reply " _Was calling Andrea and I hit the wrong name. Sorry."_ They both knew it was the most pathetic excuse, she had her under "Hobbs" not Andrea but it made it for the embarrassment of the moment. Sharon waited a few more seconds to see if he was going to reply but nothing came . She decided to pour herself that glass of wine and go take her bath. It would only be a few minutes, less than an hour, until Sharon had to clear out her mind and heart and smile for her daughter and in preparation for the intense week that was ahead of them, until the day of the wedding, next Sunday.

Entering the warmth of the water, her tense muscles started to relax a little bit. She lost herself completely in sipping her white wine and the background music that lulled her head with soft notes.

"You get out of there your way or _my_ way?" Emily was standing in the bathroom in front of her. Sharon opened her eyes to realize the music had been put off and her daughter had arrived already. Checking the watch she put on the window-sill she opened her eyes wide: it was **nine** already.


	2. Chapter 2 - Emily

Sharon was still laying in the tub while watching her daughter standing in front of her. "You look skinny… too much _baby_ ," she pointed Emily the towel hanging behind her "Is Peter feeding you enough?" Sharon knew her daughter wasn't a great cook and thankfully her soon-to-be husband Peter found it rather interesting and a good hobby when he wasn't working. The few times Sharon had visited them in New York, he always offered to cook for her, and it was very hard to leave and go back to precooked food and pizzas.

"First of all he doesn't feed me, I'm not a baby anymore, _Mom_ … and second I need to look good in my dress, in a week after the wedding, I can eat like a pig, in the limits needed for me to keep dancing on that stage without making a hole in the floor!" Emily handed her mother the towel helping her to get out the tub.

As soon as Sharon had securely covered her naked body, she launched her arms around her daughter's shoulders, without even stopping the drops falling from her hair. "Umm you smell like chocolate and vanilla. Can I eat you, _mama_?"

"I'd rather you not, but we can buy something. What about Chinese food and a movie?" she placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead

"Gone With The Wind?" Emily didn't even wait for an answer and loosening from her mother's grip she ran to the living room to grab the DVD. It had always been _their_ movie. They knew every line by heart. It was _that_ movie for any occasion, for consoling a broken heart or cheering good news, they'd always sit there eating and watching and repeating lines together. It had started one night of 20 years ago after a loud and brutal fight with Jack, that had ended with him leaving and Sharon sitting on the sofa with a pillow in her arms, trying to suffocate the tears of pain. The kids were locked in the room and didn't try to go out during the fight, eventually Ricky had fallen asleep when Emily put her headphones to his ears and told him to listen to music and it was going to be over soon. She lived that scene many times in her life, and she was three years older than Ricky, so three more years of fights. They never had stopped and with years passing they became always more brutal. Few times she had heard a distinct sound of a slap and found her mother trying to cover her face saying it was all right and sending her to bed. Many of the times she heard them screaming she had wanted to run into the room and scream too, to stop the fighting and screaming, that it was scaring them, but Sharon always told her to never leave the room when she heard them fighting. That night in October, after she heard the slam of a door all that followed was silence and the sound of the heavy rain outside. Ricky had fallen asleep already and Emily slowly opened the door to check if it was over. Once again, she had found Sharon on the sofa with her knees to her breasts and her head laying on them, sobbing and shaking. " _Mom_?" She had called to her but didn't get an answer, so going to the kitchen she put two napkins, two spoons and a can of chocolate ice-cream on a tray and went over to her mother. She placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the sofa and went to the TV to place a dvd in the player. Sharon had watched the whole scene in silence, when her daughter went back sitting next to her, she gave her a spoon and a napkin and after setting the ice-cream dish in her hands she had snuggled on her Mom's side putting her head on her shoulder. Neither Emily or Sharon said a word that night, just watched the movie and ate their ice-cream, from time to time Sharon had placed a kiss on her temple and Emily had smiled each time.

Hours later, after Emily had closed her eyes and covered her ears, as she always did when the little girl dies jumping with her horse. and she had gone mad at Scarlett for going behind Ashley instead of enjoying Rhett who was _a lot more charming and funny_ to her saying, Sharon looked at the watch realizing how past her bedtime it was and urged Emily to go to bed. "Is Andy coming over tonight?" Emily asked innocently wondering where he had been the whole time since she arrived.

Sharon swallowed those words and they tasted so bitter in her throat. She cleared her voice "No, he's not coming," and closed it fast hoping Emily wouldn't ask for more information about this matter.

"Okay, so there's no problem if I sleep with _Mommy_?" she seemed quiet and not suspicious of anything and her request put a sweet smile on Sharon's face. There had been times that Emily had given her a very hard time, especially in her teenager years, but she could also be so sweet and recalling of that little girl who looked for her attention every time she was dancing.

Emily knew since the age of 6 she wanted to be a ballerina, she literally said to her Mom " _When I grow up I want to dance like a princess, Mommy"_ and so Sharon had looked for the best ballet school to register her as soon as possible and get her started. She was very young, and Sharon had bet she would have given up pretty soon. After that little gap of a couple of months in which she wanted to kill her brother to have _Mommy_ all for herself, she got so passionate about being a big sister to the baby that she declared she wanted to be a pediatrician when she grew up. The year after, when one of her friends was given a shiny beautiful puppy for her 4th birthday, she decided she wanted to be a vet. At 5 she desired to put the bad guys behind bars like Mom and then at 6 she was a ballerina. Her mind was very creative and had a variety of colored ideas on her future, none of them lasted long enough to be taken in consideration. None but **dancing**. When she started, her teacher had told Sharon from the beginning she had a true talent and passion and that, if well followed and trained, she was going to be a leading star in the business. Pretty soon she was moved from the beginners group to the medium level and by the time she was 12 she was already in the advanced level, being the youngest of that group. Emily surely had the passion and showed charisma and grace in her moves; any time she wasn't at her ballet class she was still dancing, while setting up the table, or washing the dishes she used to do her exercises, many times Sharon had found her doing breathing exercise while making her homework's and she would never sit down on the sofa with them as they watched a movie, but on the floor with her _toe_ and stretching her legs. That one time Sharon had bought tickets for them for a ballet show, she knew that it was going to be Emily's life dream job and that she would have done anything to pursue that dream. Contrary to Ricky who had yawned the whole time of the show and asked, " _When can we go home Mommy?"_ , Emily had a light in her eyes. She didn't say a single word for the whole length of it and when it was over she was so hyper about everything that she wouldn't stop talking of it instead, making it very hard then for Ricky to fall asleep with all her little screaming here and there in two or three words of a sentence.

When it was time to turn off the lights, Sharon gave Emily a kiss wishing her goodnight and Emily hugged her from behind. After few minutes of silence, Emily broke it "Mom?" Sharon mumbled, "Tomorrow you're going to explain me what happened with Andy," it was clear that Emily knew, she couldn't have hidden it for too long, and it was not going to be easy to explain, but she could not avoid it anymore.

Turning on the other side, Sharon took Emily in her arms "Goodnight, baby!" Emily smiled falling asleep in her Mom's hug like she was 3 again.

 **O-O-O-O-O**

When Sharon woke up, Emily was laying next to her in the most awkward of positions that made her put hands to her mouth not to let a laugh loud get out. It was 4 am and for the night they had spent it was probably too early to wake her up. She silently walked out the room closing the door behind her and decided to make a good breakfast for her baby. Before walking to the kitchen she stopped by Rusty's bedroom to check if he had come back home last night and found him laying on his stomach with the pillow covering his head and an arm pending from the side of the bed. Her children slept in the most unusual ways. She moved his arm up the bed and fixed the blankets curled around his sides hoping not to wake him up.

It wasn't a habit for Sharon to cook a big breakfast, normally she would have taken just a coffee while Rusty had his cereal and milk and then run out to work, but this time it was something special for her little girl being there. Walking on tiptoe to the kitchen she reached the fridge and opened the doors: eggs, milk and butter was all she needed, but her sight went again on that plate sitting there alone on a shelf. She stopped reading that note again and a little tear wet her cheek. Sharon inhaled the smell from it, pretending it smelled like him and seeing him preparing it with love and care for her. It was a matter of seconds, she decided she couldn't let it hit on her again, she had to be stronger and with the plate solidly firm in her hand she threw the contents into the garbage. It was her week with Emily, probably the last one they would spend alone because now she was going to a new life, new things, a husband and maybe children in the future. Everything was going to change for her and in a little part for Sharon too. She had to admit that her _baby_ wasn't little anymore and it was time for her to step aside and let her fly even higher that she had done already. While sobbing a little to these thoughts and mixing them with happy memories of her young years, she hurried to make this breakfast in time to have a shower and go to work.

 **O-O-O-O-O**

When Emily woke up it was almost 7.30 am. She slowly moved her hand on her side but she found only an empty spot. She checked the watch and couldn't believe how early it was and how her mother managed to be up already. She went to the kitchen yawning and calling her without any response. When she entered the room her eyes opened wide to the table set in front of her: pancakes and three different bowls with syrups and two different types of chocolate creams. Behind the plate a paper note

 _Good morning my beautiful princess. Mommy had to leave to get the bad guys behind bars, but couldn't without first serving a decent breakfast. A little treat for my little baby. Come by during my lunch break and we'll have something together. Eat everything, it won't make damages for this time. Mom loves you so much, to the moon and back. Bon appétit!_

No one served meals better than Sharon did and Emily knew it. When they were kids, Sharon really cared for having breakfast every morning with them, sitting at the table and reminding them the good manners and all they had to do for having a satisfying and worthwhile start of the day. In the beginning it had seemed funny and interesting, but with years passing Sharon was always more tired, having to take care of everything. Ever since Jack had left them she was becoming more and more tired, and from her part Emily was growing into a beautiful independent woman who didn't want to listen to her mother's advice anymore and preferred to do on her own thought, even if resulted in being wrong. At the first possibility of a job elsewhere, she didn't think twice to go away and start her new life thinking it was all she desired, but every year she was away from her mother, she had realized how much she missed even those things she hated the most like her suggestions and discussions on good manners.

Sitting at the table, Emily wondered where to start, syrup or chocolate? And which chocolate? Or maybe both? And what about Rusty? Did she have to wait for him too? At the same time she couldn't avoid thinking that her mother had managed again to vanish before they could talk about what happened with Andy, and it was very smart of her, but she couldn't escaped it at lunch, she needed to know, if not from her mother then she would have to go to Andy to discover.

"Hello" a soft and still sleepy voice came from behind her. She turned to find Rusty still rubbing his eyes to wake up.

"Hey little brother, want to have a bite?" she invited him to sit and eat with her. As much as everything seemed appealing and tasty, Rusty had his routine with milk and cereals in the morning and he did really enjoy that stability in his days, but he didn't mind to spend some time with his sister. He had spent more time with Ricky in the past years since the adoption, and with the impending wedding and his role in all the ceremony, he thought it was about time to know her better and personally, not only from Sharon's words or Ricky's jokes.

He sat in front of her with his cup and his things and started to pour cereal in it "So, are you nervous for your wedding?" he asked.

"Oh no that's gonna be just fine, tell me. What's going on between Mom and Andy?" she really didn't care for more than information and she was sure Rusty knew something.

"Did Sharon tell you something is wrong?" Rusty replied vaguely and never looked her in the eyes.

"No! But I'm smart enough to notice that he hasn't been here the whole evening or night, not a call, she never mentioned him and also in the wardrobe there's a whole side that is completely empty and Mom's clothes are all on the other one. So what's happening? They broke up?" Last night, in the small time Sharon took to get dressed, between ordering the dinner and putting the DVD in the player, Emily found the time to investigate and started with the wardrobe. Just a few days before Sharon was talking to her about Andy so enthusiastically that she couldn't believe they broke up.

"They had a fight and…" Rusty took a deep breath "Andy went away screaming." His tone was low and a little sad, like realizing that he may have been right about that.

On the contrary, Emily was angry. Her temper was for sure a thing she inherited from her father, really nothing could get on her nerves. Right now this was it. Her instincts screamed to get dressed and run to Andy Flynn's house to scream a thing or two to his face, but her mind reacted quickly suggesting that if her mother found out then she would have been in huge trouble and, at a week before her wedding, it may not have been the right call to make.

 **O-O-O-O-O**

As programmed with her mother, Emily dedicated the morning to some dancing exercise and then went visiting Peter's mother to make a few adjustments to the wedding, all in time to reach Sharon for her lunch break. She was determined to discuss this Andy thing with her and understand what happened and how things were.

Arriving to the precinct she stopped in the big hall lost. The last time she had been at work with her mother she was 15 and it was all different and also not pleasant at all. That morning Sharon had received a call from the headmaster of Emily's school to be informed that her daughter had been found in the bathroom with a cigarette in her hand. She had sworn she wasn't smoking but only keeping it for a girl from last year but they hadn't believed her. Her mother was infuriated with her for both the embarrassment and the idiocy of her action. During the whole car ride she hadn't said a word or even looked at her. By the time they had arrived to her office she had chained her to a chair with her look and only said " _If you move from here, your next house will be a college in Switzerland where the word fun is not even pronounced in any of their speaking languages."_ Normally Emily knew she would never have done such a thing like sending her so far from her, but she hadn't dared to find out if her mother was bluffing or saying the truth. She had spent the whole rest of Sharon's shift sitting on that chair, in silence, with her mother in front of her and side looking at her if she dared to even breath louder than expected.

For what Emily could remember of that experience, being at work with her after that accident, was actually like a Luna Park. The return home had been even worse.

"Hello, where can I find the Major Crimes division? I'm looking for Captain Sharon Raydor, I'm her daught…" the lady behind the glass separator wasn't even looking at her.

"Sign here, here's your visitor card, elevators are there, 9th floor…" she was speaking so fast that Emily kept repeating her words all the way through the elevator and when entering it she panicked not remembering the number and had to repeat all over again before hitting 9.

"Hello, I'm Lieutenant Provenza how can I…" the man opened his eyes wide "You cannot be little Emily Raydor, are you?" he surprisingly hugged her and smiled.

"She's not little anymore, Lieutenant," Sharon came out of her office and walking to her daughter she smiled before to place a kiss on her temple "My little baby has grown up into a beautiful woman. Mike, you remember my daughter?" Every time Sharon introduced her children to other people you could see the light of pride sparkling in her eyes. She would show them like prizes she won.

"So what brings you down here?" Provenza was still smiling and shaking her hand.

"I was hoping to steal my Mom away for some lunch and… other stuff, if you're not too busy working?!" Emily had planned to bring her mother to her last fitting for her wedding dress, but Sharon didn't know about it yet. It had been surprisingly hard for her to set this wedding without her help because her future mother-in-law had been nice willing to help, but many times Emily had to calm her own tempers and get into compromises, which wasn't her specialty, it was her mother's and she would have loved to have her there doing it. She had to compromise on the cake, on the food, on the music, on pretty much everything but she was firm on the wedding dress. That was her call to do and no one else.

"Well it's been quiet here actually, but I've some paper work to do and it'll take a few hours still if we can…" Sharon was interrupted immediately.

"Captain, I'm not going to offer this another time so you better take the deal now, I'll finish the paper for you," it was really incredible to believe that Provenza had just offered to do extra paper work, when normally he would give his own to Flynn, instead. May it be Emily present there or an incoming sickness hitting his head, Sharon didn't wait him repeating a second time and grabbed her stuff. As much as she loved her job, and writing papers reminded her of the old times in the IA where everything seemed less complicated than now, she desired some time with her daughter more than ever.

 **O-O-O-O-O**

Sitting at the table, after a lunch with laughs and fun facts on Sharon's working place and Emily's preparing for the wedding, they were enjoying a coffee "Okay, Mom. It was a beautiful time together and everything, but now we need a serious talk. I noticed Andy wasn't at work and I know something is going on, so without rounding much around it, what happened?" Emily's determination reminded of Sharon her young self. She wouldn't give up on something until she knew all about it. Her daughter was really like her for this, and she wouldn't push or insist with questions, she would let her talk free about it but she had to explain.

Taking a deep breath Sharon let out few words, "He asked me for some time, and I'm afraid it means that we broke up!" Her eyes were looking down, at her hand moving the spoon right and left to melt the sugar in her coffee. She didn't want to meet her daughter's eyes, she didn't want to see any expression on her face and she was scared of hearing Emily's response. In the past, Emily had expressed concern about her relationship with Andy, not because she didn't like the man, but because her mother had been alone for so long that jumping into a relationship with a colleague could have been good and bad for her.

"Okay that's the shortest version of an explanation I've ever heard, I'd like to hear the whole story. Or if you prefer we can drive to his condo and I'll hear it from him, whichever you prefer," the look in Sharon's eyes made her understand she hit the right button. The idea of Emily facing Andy petrified her. Her daughter could be very persuasive and excessive at times, and to defend or protect the ones she loved she would have gone for the excess for sure.

Taking a deep breath Sharon started to go back with her mind, two night ago. _It was chilling outside and Rusty said he would have stayed with Gus so they took the occasion to spend a quiet evening together home, with a nice casual dinner and a movie on the couch. She hadn't been drinking much, because she never did when Andy was there, as a form of respect to his fight against his addiction. After washing the dishes and cleaning the table they had sat to watch a movie, under a blanket into each other comforting hug_ , "I will go short on here as there's no need for details." Sharon was a little embarrassed to talk of her sex life with her daughter. _One thing leading to another, they moved to the bedroom. It hadn't been the first time, but it had been different this time. More intimate, more passionate, more like making love than satisfying a physical need. And when she woke up in the morning, she found his side empty and thought for the worst, but he only was in the kitchen making breakfast. Some smooching and subtle smiles and then everything went messed up when he said those three words, for the first time, and left her speechless. He said it, clear and loud enough for her to listen to all his passion in them, and she wasn't prompt to respond. Instead, she went with reasoning again and explaining why she wasn't going to respond the same, not because she didn't feel love for him but because of being scared it was too soon to say it. And from there Andy went mad, because rightfully after almost a year, she was still scared and insecure about them and mentioning Jack as the reason why she was so scared to love again, only made him madder. He couldn't stand to be compared to him. He was not Jack, he had proved it enough times and still she felt she couldn't let herself go completely and let him love her as she deserved and as he wanted to._

"He went away slamming the door and told me that he's probably not the one I want." Sharon was sad, realizing she had handled that badly, and repeating it hurt even more.

There was a lot of words Emily would have liked to say, a lot of yelling she would have liked to do, to Andy, but she knew better than this and knew that right now screaming wasn't the solution. Right now her mother needed some distraction, and she had the perfect idea in mind. "Come with me, it's time to go!"

Sharon didn't know where her daughter was taking her, and during the drive Emily made her close her eyes not to see where they were going or stopping by. "Just a few more steps, Mom!" Emily was leading Sharon by her hands through the door. It was a shop, that was evident to Sharon by the bell ringing at the opening of a door, she tried to understand where by the smell or noises around but she was clueless. Emily made her sit down on a soft and comfortable sofa chair. "Just keep them closed, okay?" she made sure Sharon wouldn't open her eyes and ruin her surprise.

It passed a good amount of time before Emily finally told her to open her eyes. What Sharon found took her breath away, standing in front of her was Emily in her wedding dress. "Oh my… Emily it's…" she stood up and went around her to see it clear. The silk chiffon of the gown fell gently from her hips laying down on the floor, the sweetheart neckline to underline her body's features but softly masked from the fabric of lace that covered her shoulders till down the forearms and closing into a silk strip on her waist. Emily hadn't chosen a pure white color but instead an ivory one, and it looked perfect on her skin and contrasted beautifully with the darkness of her hair.

"Do you like it? The moment I saw it I knew it was going to be mine. I feel so pretty in it!" Emily started to twirl a bit to make her gown rolling right and left.

A tear fell down Sharon's left eye and she wiped it away "You are gorgeous in it, _baby_. And I'm so proud of you."

Sharon wrapped her arms around her daughter's waist and put her chin on her shoulder, closing her eyes to enjoy the moment at its fullest. Emily hung to her mother's arm and started to swing in her hug. "Mom," Sharon sighed while her eyes were still closed and her body swinging "You should tell him _you love him_!"

Silence came and it put a space between the two of them, Sharon knew Emily was right, and Emily knew she chose the right moment to say it. It was just hard for her mother to let go of the anger and the fear of being cheated on again, of being left alone and hurt. This time it was also different because he worked with her, it would have created a very difficult and awkward situation at work for which one of the two had to leave the division, just like had happened with his week off. Andy was not sick, he didn't want to see her after that morning. It had been incredibly hard for Sharon to sit at her desk and watch his empty space, the chair under the desk and no one turning around and smiling at her.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a voice took their attention, "Well I didn't know they make wedding dress also for dancing hippos!"

 _ **To Be Continued…**_


	3. Chapter 3 - Ricky

Ricky entered the room with his usual funny look of someone who had just been woken up and put on the first thing that he could find. Sharon ran into his arms, happy and jumping to see her little boy.

"You look… beautiful, Emily!" Rusty appeared behind his brother.

"Thanks Rusty. At least one of my brothers is nice and sweet. I think it's clear which one will sit at the table closer to mine" Emily went to kiss both her brothers, without sparing a slap on Ricky's arm first. "You instead, will sit at the one with old ladies without a partner"

"Emily…" Sharon looked at her daughter without adding more words.

"As always mom to the rescue, saved by her look, you'll sit at the closer table, but with your back to me. You don't deserve to see me." Emily gave another kiss to her brother, because she knew how much he hated them. Ever since they were kids, Ricky had always expressed his dislike for any kind of effusions in public, he would accept maybe a kiss or two only from his mother and very far from the eyes of others. In this he was just like his mother, trying to keep that _iceman_ look, while deep inside he was more sweet and cuddly than his sister showed openly. "So what do you think?" Emily twirled on the floor towards the mirrors again.

"Not bad, but maybe if you let me adjust a few spots here…" Ricky approached moving his hands like claws.

"Don't you dare to touch my perfect dress with your filthy hands. I don't even want to know where you put those, step back!" she ordered him pointing her finger in a direction very far from her.

"Are they always like this together?" Rusty asked his mother about the siblings

"Since they were kids. With the difference that now I can't apologize around claiming it's their young ages to make them sound so noisy and rude," Sharon didn't even finish her sentence completely that she already was running to her elder children to separate them as they had engaged into a slap fight against each other.

Things had not changed. She thought with age they would have become more serious and more tolerating of each other, but as the constant contact from living together had made bad, so had the distance for they were no longer able to stand each other for more than five minutes in the same room. They had too much space for each other on their own, to be able to live together for a small amount of time. This situation reminded Sharon of hers with Jack: she was no longer able to be in the same room with her ex-husband for more than five minutes before they started yelling at each other.

 **-0-0-0-0-**

The evening passed quite fast, between laughs and some more fights of her kids, it was already bed time for Sharon.

"Really mom? You're going to bed? We're all adults now, can't we stay up for a little longer?" Ricky started to complain like when he was 15 and was asked to bring out the trash.

"Yes, mom is going to bed, you my _little adults_ can stay up late if you want, but tomorrow I'll wake you all up at the same time and I don't want to hear any _five more minutes_ ," she kissed Ricky on the forehead "or _it's still too early_ ," she moved around the table to kiss her daughter on the cheek "or _I don't have to be at work until later_ ," last it was Rusty's turn to get a kiss. "So you're all going to bed now or what?"

Somehow Sharon managed always to get what she wanted from her children. One by one they stood up and moved to the rooms while Ricky started to make the sofa for himself.

Sharon wished him good night with another kiss and walked to her bedroom where Emily was waiting for her "Mom?" he stopped her.

"Yes, honey?" she turned, smiling.

Ricky hesitated a bit, "It's… nothing important, we can talk about it tomorrow!" he smiled back trying to show it was really not important to discuss now.

"Are you sure?" Sharon questioned just a little to see if he changed his mind.

"Yes, sure. Don't make Emily wait, she becomes annoying and starts screaming after a while if you don't focus your attentions on her" he snorted.

Sharon went closer to him and caught his attention with her eyes touching his shoulder, "Whatever it is you can talk to me and you know it, but now I want to ask you please to be more considerate and sweet towards your sister. It's her week, it'll be her days. You've plenty of days to fight with her like cat and mouse, but these days please be nicer. She is tense, it doesn't seem but she is. I know it. You can do this for me?" she smiled at him again with a reassuring look.

"Okay, Mommy. Promise!" Sharon's answer was to hug him and place a long and noisy kiss on his cheek. "I missed you" he whispered. Being in his mother's arms made him feel more quiet and at peace with his problems, he would have wanted to discuss them with her, but perhaps it wasn't the right time this week with the upcoming wedding and the attentions being all on Emily.

"Mooooooooom," from afar it came Emily's voice who was calling back her mother to her attention. Ricky didn't say a word but looked at his mother like saying, " _I told you so"_.

 **-0-0-0-0-**

Sharon opened her eyes hearing a sound from the kitchen. She checked on her right and Emily was all asleep, quiet and breathing deeply. _A burglar wouldn't turn on the lights_ , she thought and if there was someone Ricky would have heard him from the sofa, unless they had stunned him before. She grabbed her gun and with a deep breath she started to walk soft pace towards the kitchen, first thing to check on Ricky on the sofa but it was empty. With a sigh of relief, she put down her gun and checked on her son in the kitchen, "If you could make less noise, others won't wake up maybe" she said entering.

"Sorry, I was hungry and looking for something to cook. Where's the chocolate dust, Mom? I can't find it." Ricky started to open all the shutters to look for it.

"You won't find it because you're not ten anymore and I stopped buying it ever since you both moved out!" he was really disappointed in her reply. Ever since they were kids, Sharon used to buy this dust to melt in hot milk and making a nice and fast chocolate cup, which was a lot healthier and low-caloric content than a whole chocolate bar. Emily wasn't an avid fan of chocolate, she would watch to her figure for being a serious and good ballerina, but Ricky, if he had a chocolate bar at home it wouldn't last more than 10 minutes in his hands. Sharon remembered that time he was 6 and they had rushed him to the ER because he had eaten all cookies in a box within one hour, coming out with a terrible indigestion. According to his mother it was all Jack's mother's fault, who would feed the boy with candies and chocolate sweets every time he went visiting her, making him a real addict to it. Richard used to be fatter when he was a kid, so much that at some point Sharon had to deny any kind of sweets to both her kids to avoid him incurring into more serious health problems. They had hated her for this but thinking through in years they were grateful for her care, especially Ricky, who cut down on them a lot but still enjoyed eating them very much when it was the occasion.

"Here," Sharon placed a box of chocolate cookies in front of him "You can have three of my cookies, and no more," Ricky looked at her with a sad puppy face asking for more than three "That face won't work. It's three or nothing," he immediately grabbed the three he was allowed to have.

"So, you want to tell me what made you up so early in the night now?" Sharon put a plate under her son's hand so he didn't have to keep his biscuits in it and rush to eat without making a mess around.

Ricky put down the biscuits and started to rub his neck nervous. "It's nothing I just…" his eyes wandered around without ever meeting his mother's ones "I had a fight with Ally," he finally admitted the truth.

Allison was Ricky's girlfriend, but she also was one of Emily's best friends. They had met many times during their lives but he was just Emily's little annoying brother, who later became Emily's little sexy brother. The night of Emily's 30th birthday, he appeared in a different light. He wasn't anymore the little brother but a nice looking guy of 27 who was living on his own, had his own job and he was tall and had a good body and liked to keep in shape. Sometimes dressing too sloppy but he was still cute. They had started dating when he was in Los Angeles at first, a couple of times they went to the cinema, and a pizza out, then it started with messages and night calls and it intensified more and more with the years, so much that Ally decided to leave her place in LA and move to Palo Alto to be closer to him.

Emily had never expressed open dislike for the situation, but she wasn't happy about it. Her friend and her brother. She was older than him and if anything went bad, she'd have to chose one or the other and she couldn't not chose her brother. But when things seemed to go better and be more stable and Ally had moved in with Ricky, she seemed to have come to terms on accepting and, with a little push from her mother, be also happy for them.

"So you left Palo Alto mad at her?" Sharon was trying to understand what was happening without invading too much into her son's personal space. He nodded. "Well, she's coming here tomorrow so you can clear it up right?" Ricky shrugged.

" _Richard_ , we need to make a conversation I can't speak and you just gesture, I'm not going to push you but I need you to speak," Sharon sounded a little nervous now.

Ricky let out a deep breath "She's pregnant, Mom!" Sharon's eyes lighted immediately at the thought of a little grandson or granddaughter. "But it's not mine!" and the light vanished as she watched her son put his head between his arms.

"Oh honey," Sharon immediately jumped from the chair to hug him from the back. In all the spectrum of emotions, at the moment, anger was the biggest screaming in her heart. She was angry at the girl for cheating on her son, angry she would see her chances to be a grandmother vanish so quickly as they insinuated in her head, angry she couldn't do more than just hugging her son to console him, angry she couldn't just grab her gun and shoot the source of pain of her son. On his part Ricky was just sad, about everything. For the first time really, he had felt the real meaning of loving someone, of being with someone, sharing a house and life with someone. Ally was not only a beautiful woman, with her blonde hair and green eyes, she was also very intelligent. She loved computers as much as he did, and enjoyed all those super heroes movies that he loved to watch but never did before, because his girlfriends were all the kind that enjoyed romance on the screen. Their age difference never mattered much to her and she never made him feel the weight of it by treating him like a kid, as his sister used to do instead. Ricky thought Ally was the perfect one, the woman that even his mother liked and who knew everything about his father, that he didn't even have to apologize when he would show up drunk and shameful. He loved everything about her, he loved her and it hurt him so badly.

And he was sad, because in less than 3 days it was his sister's special day and Ally was clearly her maid of honor, and he was the best man so he would have to stand there, in front of her, watching her beautiful and pregnant with a child that wasn't his but someone else's, and remind himself that for that day he had to pretend everything was going to be alright and that she was still his beautiful woman.

"I can't Mom," his eyes read with tears "I can't stand there Mom and know everything and I'm…" he couldn't even finish the sentence. His eyes were crying empty tears, they had fallen already, many but there was more he needed to let out and he couldn't because of mixed feelings of sadness and anger inside him. Richard wasn't the kind of person to easily cry in front of others, just like his mother, but he felt securely protected when she was around, like she had an invisible shield that would have hidden them from everyone's sight and he felt okay to let it go a little and cry.

"Okay, okay. Come here now," Sharon stood up with her son crossing his arms around her tiny figure. He was much taller than her, and bigger, able to completely wrap himself around her. "We will figure it out together okay?" Her hand rubbing up and down his back, the urge to go face that woman was pushing harder and harder but she wouldn't listen to it.

"Should I tell Emily?" he said while sobbing.

"Not for the moment. Now you sit down on the couch with me and try to calm down," Sharon led her son to the couch where she sat and gestured for him to lay down and put his head on her lap. Covering her son she started to sing a ditty, her tone soft and calming, accompanied with caressing his hair and rocking themselves a little. No matter how old they were, they would stay kids forever to their mothers, and it was everything like that night of many years ago, when Richard was only 5 and he had a nightmare about a plane crashing, just the night before they were leaving for Harrisburg to visit Sharon's family for her sister's wedding. She had spent the rest of the night on that couch, with her boy on her lap, tuning that song and rocking him until he fell asleep in her arms. She heard his faint voice saying " _It's been a month I know"_ , which wore out her even more to think her son had this weight pending on him for a month and didn't let it out before to lift his heart a little.

As a mother, Sharon would have taken all his pain to bring it on her shoulders, but she knew it wasn't her place anymore, not since he left home to live the life of the _man of the house_ he had decided to follow. Softly placing her lips on his temple she whispered to him those words he never would have wanted to hear when awake, "Don't let one woman bring you down. There will be a woman out there to love you as you deserve, and I will always love you, _baby_."

After letting her son take all the couch sleeping and gently slide away from him, she was exhausted and couldn't feel her legs anymore. The sufferance of her son and the problems coming had left Sharon completely without strength, she needed to lay down and have some more hours of sleep.

On her way to the bedroom, she was distracted by the light coming from Rusty's room. Her younger son was still awake at that hour, but why? While thinking about knocking on his door to check on him and decided to leave it for the morning, a simple _Damit_ drew her attention and she decided to knock and step in.

Gently calling his name while entering, she found him sitting at the end of his bed with his face between his hands. Rusty immediately raised his head as the door opening. He looked pale and tired and sad, or more worn-out. "I'm a mess, Mom!" he said with eyes that seemed ready to let tears out.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued…**_


	4. Chapter 4 - Rusty

Sharon quickly closed the door behind her entering the room and sat on the bed next to him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders stroking his left arm, in an attempt to calm him down.

In the years, since Rusty started living with Sharon it had only happened 3 times that he sought comfort in her arms. That time the _crazy_ Wade Weller had tried to kill him, and after his testimony in the Stroh case in court, he had felt worn-out with emotions that falling into tears in Sharon's hug had felt like something he never had wanted to put an end to. Then there was the time Jack had entered the condo completely drunk to give Sharon money, which she refused and Rusty felt sorry for Sharon having to deal with her ex-husband once again. It was natural for him to want to offer to deal with Jack and to hug Sharon and help her feel that he was there for her, knowing how hard is to deal with an addict. And lastly there was the hardest of all, the time that knowing his mother was in town he had tried to reach out for her but she had cut him off when he told her Gary had been following him. Rusty had promised himself to never allow his biological mother's actions to impact him again, but it was easier to say than to make it actually happen. Since the first night he spent at Sharon's condo he was sure of only one thing: he wanted to find his mother and live with her. He loved her. He forgave her more than once. As years passed and he grew up, that thought took the distance from his thoughts. Rusty had started to live the reality of having a family, to have a mother that cared for him no matter how he looked, how he felt or who he liked. Slowly, Rusty passed from being just a witness of the love of a mother, watching Sharon with Ricky and Emily, to be the protagonist of it, and he liked it.

Sharon lifted her head a bit to notice his laptop was on some page of dancing tutorial. "What is it that keeps you awake so late and also desperate?"

Rusty sniffled once and rubbed his eyes, "I am a mess. I am not good. I… I can't do it, Mom." He sat up straight and nervously his left leg started to shake.

Sharon put a hand on his leg to calm it from shaking, "I am pretty sure you're exaggerating a little bit, what are you not good at, dancing?" she pointed to the laptop. Rusty stood up swiftly, face to face with Sharon who was still sitting down, calm and steady trying to make him talk about the real problem.

Ever since Emily announced her upcoming wedding, everyone was given a job to do. Sharon had to be the nostalgic mother, flaunting confidence in support of Emily during the organization of it all; while her heart and mind went wandering how fast her little princess had grown. Ricky was Emily's _soon-to-be-husband_ best man, since Peter had no brothers and wasn't particularly linked to any friend. And Rusty was too old to bring the rings, but was perfect for walking Emily down the aisle.

"I… I don't think I can do it. Why… why did she pick me? I'm not even her brother," Rusty continued.

This time Sharon stood up quickly. She was annoyed, "You're angry and I get it, but never again repeat something like this. You're no less a brother to Emily than Ricky is and I don't want you to say that ever again, understood?" Rusty nodded in silence. It was really rare for Sharon to lose her patience like this, and when it happened most of time Jack or her children were involved.

"Sorry, I just mean that… why me? Shouldn't her father be the one to do it?" Sharon sat down again taking a deep breath. She knew why Jack wasn't going to do it, but Emily never had wanted to explain the reason to her brothers.

It had been months of fights and angry calls and as much as Sharon didn't want to get involved, somehow Emily had thrown her in asking for help. He never liked Peter and he had never hid his dislike in front of his daughter or the man himself. The few times Emily went visiting with Peter and Jack was present it always ended up in a fight between the father and the daughter, slammed doors and Sharon apologizing to Peter for her ex-husband's behavior. Peter knew about Jack and his addiction, Emily had no secrets for him, and he also had told Sharon many times she didn't have to apologize for him, he wasn't hit by his words but Emily was and every time it had hurt her more and put distance between her and her father.

Emily had decided to tell him about the wedding when both her parents were present. She needed her mother's support in Jack's presence. While Sharon was excited by the news, Jack hadn't spared any comment on how Peter was a lousy man, not good for her that she could have better and that he would have break her heart soon and ruined the marriage. _I will not give you away to that man_ , he had said and Emily hadn't said a word in reply until walking to the door and opening it she had told him not to bother to show up, _you're not invited_. Ever since that day she hadn't spoken to her father and nobody knew where he was.

Rusty had been listening carefully to the story and felt sorry for even bringing up the subject of Jack for he saw the sadness in Sharon's eyes and the struggle in her voice. He could only have imagined the guilt she had to live with every day because of him, having married in the first place and then she had children, who were paying the price for her bad decisions. Under many aspects Sharon and Rusty were just alike, always feeling guilty and responsible for the actions of an addict in their lives, but while Sharon had learned to live with it and reached that point of understanding that it wasn't actually her fault for Jack's addiction, Rusty was still working on letting go of the feeling that if he had been a better son maybe his mother would have chosen him over drugs. He had worked a lot with Dr. Joe and talked with Sharon about it and was improving, but there was still a tiny voice in the back of his mind reminding him of her failures as a mother and that he may have not helped with his behavior.

"Okay, I get it but why can't Ricky walk her down the aisle? He's the elder brother anyway," he insisted.

"Because Ricky is the best man and Emily asked you, not him." Sharon knew it was her son's insecurity talking and taking the lead over his emotions, bringing anxiety and turmoil into his mind. "Okay look, when Emily told me she thought to ask you I thought it was a splendid idea. I didn't impose her, no one did. It came from her heart. I can assure you that Emily rarely does something she doesn't want to." Sharon smiled at Rusty remembering how hard it had been to convince her to do her homework because it was good for her education and not an imposition from the school or her mother.

"Okay but, I… what if I trip while walking her? I can't do it!" Rusty nervously shut down his laptop making a sharp noise. Sharon put her finger to her mouth to tell him to be quiet and walked towards him holding the grip of both her hands around his arms.

"I would be very grateful if you wouldn't trip with her, but I'm sure you won't. What's the real matter here, Rusty? What is bothering you so much?" it was clear to Sharon that there was far more than being scared to trip, something deeper that scared Rusty that he didn't want to reveal.

Rusty bowed his head to avoid meeting Sharon's eyes. He was ashamed by his thoughts and feelings and would have never wanted for his mother to deal with any of that, she already had her own problems with Andy to solve, but understanding she would have rather spent the night standing in front of him for an answer, he gave up resisting and confessed. "It's… this is the first time that I will meet the whole family and they're all going to look at me and they also don't like me." Confessing had been hard but he felt the heavy weight lift from his chest.

"I am quite sure they are going to focus on Emily that day, as it should be. And who told you they hate you, it is not true!" she seemed quiet, Rusty would have expected that last thing to make her more angry like before.

"It was Ricky," he was uncertain on giving the answer while studying her body gestures and her expressions.

Surprisingly to his expectations, Sharon broke into a laugh. "Oh Rusty! He didn't mean it. Try asking Emily about her brother, she will tell you we adopted him from a zoo in a group of monkeys. You really shouldn't take him seriously when he tells you these things. Look, I'll be honest with you my family has been reluctant in the beginning about your adoption, but it's since I was 15 that it's been clear to pretty much everyone that I take decision evaluating every aspect of it and with a long reflection upon it. By the time I legally adopted you, they all liked you already and were happy about it, you don't have to fear about that," her look moved to the closed laptop. "What's with that you're hiding?"

Reassured by her words, Rusty moved his eyes on what his mother was pointing to, "Oh that, yeah. Emily want me to have a dance with her as, you know _He_ should do, but… I can't dance, and she is a ballerina. I'll make a fool of myself or of Emily!" **He** was Jack and after the story she told him, Rusty didn't want to bring him in the discussion again and see his mother turn into sadness again.

"If Jack was to dance with Emily he would surely make a fool of himself or her. Don't worry you can't do worse. Let me see, it's just a simple _Waltz_ you only need to focus on a sequence of steps. I'll show you!" Sharon dragged her son to the middle of the room and with her right hand crossed Rusty's left one while positioning his right hand on her waist. "It's very simple, look at me not my feet. Head up, relax your shoulders and move one, two, three, one, two, three. This is everything you have to remember, these three numbers. They go in matches of three steps," Rusty couldn't believe he was really dancing so naturally with his mother. Judging from the tutorial it seemed much more difficult. "Now to give a little bit of variety you make me twirl under your arm," they went on for a couple of times more before Rusty felt confident enough and ready to do it with Emily on her big day.

"Thank you, Mom!" Sharon didn't reply, she simply printed her lips on his forehead.

"If you have any doubts on why Emily picked you among others, you can simply ask her. Count on her honesty, she won't lie!" Giving him a warm smile she ordered him to go to bed pointing her finger. Last words she heard before wishing good night was _Yes, Captain_.

The morning after, it was a little later that his normal daily wake up time, but he supposed Sharon didn't insist much on waking him up after the long night they had spent. Rusty was wondering if she had gone to work at her normal time or had slept in a little bit. Not much to his surprise the bedroom was empty and in the kitchen was only Emily and Ricky. "Hey," he waved to his siblings who only responded with a gesture of their heads.

"Hey Rusty, good morning!" Sharon had indeed woke up early but not gone to work yet, instead she was making breakfast in the kitchen for her children.

"Mom has taken a day off, Rusty. Can you believe it? She, Captain _I can't miss a day at work or the world comes to an end_ , took a day off. It may be the reason why it's raining outside!" Emily mocked her mother who just gave her a look without words. Ricky snort-laughed to his sister joke and decided to continue from it, "Or Captain _It's always important to be on time at meetings to give the impression of reliability_. Yes, it's really the reason why it's raining. Last free day was, oh wait I'm not even sure I was born, was I _Em_?"

"Okay, you two. Enough with the jokes, you could instead help Captain _I'm not having fun_ preparing your breakfast, **if** you want to eat it by lunch time," she hinted them with a sarcastic tone.

"Come on _Cheetah_ , let's help Mom." Emily grabbed a blueberry from the bowl on the counter and started to sift the flour and sugar for the pancakes.

"I told you a million times to stop calling me like that, _Hippo_. Mom tell her." Ricky reluctantly moved towards the counter seeking for his mother help in stopping Emily using nicknames he didn't like.

" _Child One_ and _Child Two_ , I will not get in the middle of this again." She moved her look away and then back to both of her older children. "Okay, stop with the monkeys and stop with _Fantasia_ dancing animals," Sharon waved in front of their faces a dirty wooden spoon.

Rusty observed the scene from the outside amused and it came back to his mind what Sharon had told him, _you can simply ask her_. "Hey Emily, may I ask you something?"

"You want to know what's your nickname, _Blondie_?" when her mother wasn't looking she grabbed a small piece of chocolate.

"No, I… wait what? _Blondie_? That's…"

"You preferred _last arrived_?" asked Ricky

"No. What about just my name, though?" questioned Rusty.

"You are part of the family you have a nickname. She's _Mommy_ , he's _Cheetah_ , I'm _Princess_ …"

" _Hippo_ ," Ricky interrupted her.

"He's _Cheetah_ or for many _the stupid monkey mom and dad adopted from an abandoned zoo and would have been better to have returned with nothing_ ," she corrected her previous statement

"Children…." Sharon didn't even stop what she was doing or raised her look, only her voice tone was enough to sedate them.

Emily let go of a breath, "So what was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Oh yes, why me? Why did you ask me to walk you down the aisle? I know it sounds weird as a question and I'm honored, don't think I'm not, I'm just curious about it because…" Emily interrupted him immediately with an answer.

"You think I would have allowed the _prince of monkeys_ to walk me? Have you looked at him? Besides he's as tall as a giraffe and in his suit he looks like the _Incredible Hulk_ in a suit 2 sizes shorter. We'll look much better together," she had passed cutting strawberries, but for every one she cut in 4 pieces, one always disappeared because Ricky kept stealing it. "Look, my father was supposed to but he is not going to be there for bla bla reason and I want my family to be there with me, and for **my family** I mean the three of us and the prince of monkeys here," she pointed to Ricky who had moved to the fridge opening both doors.

"Oh thank you, thank you very much for including me, I feel flattered," he said sarcastically.

"What can I say? After 30 years I started to like you a bit. You happy, _Mom_? You won!" Sharon snort-laughed.

"Mom, do we have any bananas left?" Ricky starred at the fridge while scratching his head. Emily simply looked at her mother with her _I told you so_ look that Sharon often had given her during her youth, for all the times she was right about something and Emily had ignored her suggestion.

"No, close the fridge and go sit down!" Sharon gave her son a pat on his buttock. "We took long enough to make this breakfast and there's a lot of things to do for the wedding so sit down, eat, and then we leave," Sharon assigned each one his place and sat at the head of the table.

"Leave for where?" Ricky started to become suspicious.

"You need a haircut _babe_ , or your sister has every right to call you a monkey. And also a new suit because that one looks ridiculous on you," both Emily and Rusty snort-laughed at her comment "Don't laugh too much, _Blondie_. You're coming with us. You need a new pair of shoes and a new tie." She pointed the fork towards Rusty.

"Oh Lieutenant Provenza said he's giving me one of his, no need for a tie." Rusty replied eating his cereals and some milk spitted over the table.

Emily's look towards her mother was self-explanatory. "First, we don't speak with our mouth full and second, you're coming with us because you need a new pair of shoes and a tie, and it's not negotiable." When Sharon gave an order no one could make a deal with her. She looked at her watch "And we are going to leave in about… 30 minutes. You may all want to hurry, have a shower and dress before we go!" She was calm and smiling, but terror printed on her three children's faces who started to eat much faster and run one after the other for the shower. Emily and Ricky knew better than Rusty how much being on time was important to their mother, especially that one time in which Emily had been late for school and Sharon left her walking to it because Ricky couldn't be late at his class for her laziness. She had warned her many times, " _If you don't move I'll leave without you and you'll have to walk to school."_ but Emily had ignored her, sure she was bluffing. She was not. It was one of the times in which Jack was back home and when Emily told him the story he went mad at Sharon for being "cold" towards her family and showing "no love" for her children, but sure thing was that from that day Emily had learned her lesson and never was late again, indeed she managed to always be ready 5 minutes earlier than established time.

At the strike of the 30th minute, her children were all ready to leave standing in front of the door. "Give me the keys, I drive" Emily tried to take the car keys from her mother's hand.

"Don't you dare, we'll end up at the hospital. I'll drive." Sharon had still clear in her mind when Emily had gotten her driving license, as much as she wanted to forget, it was impossible to. She never had an accident in her life, but she surely risked many times.

There was a lot of fighting on who would be sitting next to Sharon and ultimately Emily won with the _older_ card and if that wasn't going to work the _it's my wedding week_ one would have worked like a charm, instead. The car wasn't less noisy, fighting over what to listen to and then singing loudly. Sharon loved having all her children with her again, but in small doses. A whole week with both Emily and Ricky fighting like cat and mouse was hard and knowing that she had ahead of her a whole day with them, made her debate many times to turn around and go to work. Right now work was her _safe_ place.

When they finally arrived at the store, Sharon inhaled the fresh air outside before getting herself into another fight with them. Emily had nothing to buy but the fact she was there was going to be the same old story. Anything Ricky had put on she would have criticized with jokes, anything Emily would have put on, just for the fun of trying new things, he would have hinted to how it was possible she was still dancing when putting on weight, and then Sharon had to act as mediator between the two. Thankfully this time Rusty was with her, maybe he would help her distract from the _Raydor Kids Show_.

As predicted they started to fight and Sharon focused all her attention on Rusty.

"I really don't think this is needed, Sharon!" Rusty's annoyed voice echoed in the dressing room.

"It's funny that whether I am Mom and Sharon depends if you're doing something you like or something that annoys you," she pointed our sarcastically, "May I see it? My x-ray sight is out of duty today!"

Rusty came out hanging loosely his arms and crawling his feet, "It doesn't fit me!"

"Actually it fits perfectly," Sharon approached to him "Stand up straight, look up. You're perfect. This outfit suits you," she started to smooth his shoulders and arms.

"I look like a penguin," he was looking at himself in the mirror.

"Penguins are black and white, you're in dark grey and possibly we can find a different dress shirt in some different pastel color that you'd like," she started to fix his tie "This looks really good on you!"

"Really? Good on me? When you took me with you the first day you imagined me in a suit like this? This whole thing fits your boyfriend, not me. And if he was here he would be laughing at me, just like your other two children are doing down there, I saw you both. Stop it!" Behind Sharon's back Emily and Ricky had turned all their attention to their younger brother. She knew that Rusty hated that outfit and also that it didn't really look like his normal style of dress, but it was a special occasion and she wanted him to look just right. While still fixing his tie, she completely passed over his comment on _her boyfriend_ , trying to send to the back of her mind about Andy and their situation.

"Tell you a thing to make fun of them. Ricky still can't knot his tie and Emily can't walk in sneakers. Use them wisely," she hinted at him with a smirk "Go and try the other one, I'll look for the shoes. Go, go!"

It took them the whole morning to find everything as Sharon liked, Rusty just went along when he realized that complaining wouldn't have saved him from trying on more outfits and shoes and being the object of his siblings jokes. According to Emily it was _due for being the newest member of the family._ Everyone passed from mocks of the older ones, even Emily herself had to take them from her cousin who was three years older than her.

On their way out of the shop for the next fight on where to go and have a bite, Rusty ran behind Sharon calling her "Hey, Mom?" he reached her quite fast, "Emm, look before about Andy I'm… I'm sorry I mentioned him, I shouldn't have…"

With her free hand Sharon put it on his shoulder and kissed his temple, "Don't think about it, okay? You'll pay me back with a dance at the wedding, deal? Now that you're a dancer, you can't deny me one dance."

He couldn't say if it was the tiredness from the night up and the exhausting morning shopping with her, or that he has started to consider seriously all the times Emily told him _you are part of the family_ just today, but for the first time Rusty felt really like part of that group and not just a silent outsider, and he liked it. And right now he also wanted his mother to hug him and give him kisses, something he had missed for a long time, desperately wanted for a long time, and **finally found** after too much time waiting.

The last thing Sharon would have expected from Rusty was hearing him saying _I love you, Mom_.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued…**_


	5. Chapter 5 - Family Portrait

**Saturday evening.**

A week had passed already. It had been an intense and long one for them all, among preparations, work and a particularly nasty case, they arrived to the end of Saturday eating a pizza at home. They were all tired; Sharon in particular, more than others with all her job preoccupations and Andy being away the whole week. He was supposed to go with her to the wedding the day after, but she didn't think he would make it anymore considering the way things were between them. After that message from last Saturday evening, he didn't contact her anymore and nor she did respecting his request for space. But thoughts hadn't given her a break, thoughts about their discussions, his words and those words she missed to say and had wanted to, instead.

"Mom?" Ricky interrupted her thinking "You want the last slice?" he asked. Sharon nodded letting her son have the last slice of pizza and as she finished her last piece, she left her children to watch something on TV and announced she would take a hot bath. She needed some time alone to relax. Just like the Saturday before, she poured herself a glass of white wine and walked towards the bathroom. The only thing she wished was different had been knowing that Andy was going to be there as she finished her bath. She checked her phone but it had no sign of contact from him.

As soon as the door closed behind Sharon's back, Emily jumped on her feet. "I'm going to talk to Andy, anyone want to come with?" her two brothers didn't seem to like that idea, to get involved in the situation between their mother and her boyfriend. She would have been mad at them if she found out. "Good, then think of an alibi for me while I go there, in case she comes out before I get back!" Emily put on her jacket, grabbed her mother's car keys and left the house.

Watching the door close, Rusty was very reluctant on Emily's plan. "If mom finds out, she's so screwed!"

"The one with a problem right now is Andy. If you think mom being angry is dangerous, you don't want to see Emily, trust me!" Ricky didn't like the thought either, but he knew that his sister had a really clear idea of what she had to tell her mother's boyfriend. He actually thought she would have told him earlier in the week. It wasn't about the wedding anymore, she didn't care if Andy was going to attend or not, it was about their mother and her suffering. As much as Sharon had tried to hide it, claiming it was just a little scratch that's "normal in a couple", none of them believed her and they saw she was not cool with it.

When Emily reached Andy's house she saw the lights were on, so she knew he wasn't sleeping. She knocked gently at the door twice. What she found in front of her was a total surprise. Andy opened the door slowly, looking pale like he had been sick, he hadn't shaved for about two or three days and he seemed like he was high on something. "Hi Andy, I…" Emily stopped to look at him "Are you okay?"

"I am, what do you want?" He wasn't the nice man she had met previously when visiting her mother.

"A greeting, to start with and then to come in, please." Emily sounded a lot like her mother at times.

Andy didn't give any greeting and only put on a fake smile inviting her in. The entrance room was a mess and she had to sidestep a few clothes on the floor not to step on them, on the table was a pile of pizza boxes. "I fired my housekeeper, what do you want?" he pressed again. Andy wasn't happy about the status of his house or his personal one, but he surely didn't want to explain it to Sharon's daughter and having her there made him really nervous.

"For you to hire a new housekeeper as soon as possible please," she had another look at him. Eyes red, not shaved and ruffled hair. "Have you been drinking?" Her eyes opened wide. She knew very little about his addiction, all her mother told her was that Andy had it and took control of it for more than twenty years, he attended meetings and was himself a sponsor for another guy.

"Of course not, I don't drink." Andy moved nervously towards the pizza boxes and threw them in the trash "Emily, it's so nice to see you in town but why are you at my place and not with your mother!" he raised his voice a little.

Emily found an empty spot on the sofa and sat down. She needed to gather the words and tell him the very minimum necessary for him to understand the situation, but without telling him how bad her mom was. If Sharon found out that Emily had been talking to Andy, she could have used the card _I'm getting married tomorrow_ for the day, but after getting married her mother would have exploded in anger for the fact. She chose another way to go around it, after all she had been listening only to her mother's version of the story, she needed to hear it from Andy. Emily hated to insist on things and when she asked something she didn't like to repeat it twice, but she was forced to with Andy until arriving to the point of threatening him, "If you don't want to talk it's fine, I understand. I'm only the daughter of your girlfriend, after all. But your girlfriend is Captain Sharon Raydor and you should know that she can be hell annoying when she wants something, how far does the apple fall from the tree? I get married tomorrow at 12, I can sit here for a long time until then and talk to you about my dress, and the shoes, and the flowers, and the music and all that it took for me to…" Andy interrupted her immediately.

"Fine, I'll talk, damn it didn't fall that far from that tree!" He put his face in his hands and let one run through his messy hair. The story he said was exactly as her mother had told her, word by word. Only the tones had been different: while her mother was upset and understood already by talking the fault she had in all that, Andy's tone was angry and sad at same time, but the anger was more evident in his talking.

As the story went on, it was more clear to Emily that what she was witnessing wasn't a man curing himself with alcohol, but one in love and deeply hurt who was letting himself go because it didn't care if he looked good or not to him, he didn't have anyone to look nice for.

"I understand. I see why you're upset and maybe in your position I would be too. My mom is not perfect, but…"

"She is perfect to me!" He interrupted her immediately. "She is perfect when she wakes up fifteen minutes before me to brush her teeth and fix her hair for me, she thinks I don't see it but I do. It is so sweet that I let her do it," Andy passed a hand in his hair remembering other things he loved in Sharon, "or when she always leaves me the last bite of pizza because she knows I love it. And when she let me do the dishes, I know she washes them again after, but she would never tell me I am doing them wrong and watches me trying to be as good as possible at it. Your mother is the perfect woman to me, but I don't think I am her perfect man…" he was sad, it was evident, he never met Emily's look when talking and he was nervous for her to be there, because his leg wouldn't stop shaking. She understood there wasn't more she could do there and while Andy was still sitting she stood up and grabbed her purse ready to leave. She stopped a second by his side and printed a kiss on his cheek "My wedding is tomorrow, and I know you don't feel like it but I would like you there. Think about it," she moved towards the door but Andy stopped her.

"You're a good daughter, Emily" this time he met her eyes and smiled at her, but his smirk went as fast as it came, his pain was heavy and she could feel it.

Emily put her hand on the knob and stopped turning back to him, "You're wrong if you think you're not her man. In 30 years, I haven't seen her happy like in the past two. Goodnight, Andy!" the door closed behind her, leaving both of them standing in silence for a few seconds. Emily walked to the car, hoping that her presence there would have done some good to him and for her mother, but she wouldn't count on seeing him at her wedding tomorrow. Andy stood in the living room for a quite long time, thinking over and over again through Emily's words. Maybe she was right? Maybe he had overreacted to the whole thing and needed to talk with Sharon and figure out where to go from there? Or maybe after a whole week away she had realized for real that he wasn't the man she wanted and would have left him for good?

He turned off the lights, knowing that ahead he was going to spend a night of thinking and no sleep.

More than an hour had passed, and Sharon would have eventually come out the bathroom. "Where's Emily?" she questioned as first thing when entering the room and noticing her two sons but her daughter missing. They both looked at each other, wondering why Emily was taking so long and researching for a valid excuse for their mother that she would believe.

"She brought out the trash…"

"She met with Peter…"

Both the boys spoke together saying two different lies and they realized it pretty soon they screwed up everything. "I mean she went to bring out the trash as Peter arrived to meet her," Ricky tried to cover up. It seemed like Sharon had bought it and he felt comfortable back on sofa.

"Ricky?" he raised his head from the pillow, "If she brought the trash out, shouldn't she have taken the trash from the can then?" Sharon was holding the trash bag in the air. Before Ricky could whisper a word, Emily entered the door. "Emily?" Sharon questioned as her daughter waved a smile at her, "How's Peter?" she asked.

Emily was dubious on why she was asking her and giving a quick look at her brothers she understood they used him as an excuse, "He's… good. A little nervous for tomorrow but he's good!" Emily took off her jacket "I think I'm going to bed now. I'm tired and I need to be rested for tomorrow. It's gonna be a long thrilling day, remember? I'm getting married!" Emily disappeared in the bedroom before her mother could question her more. Some time later, when she joined her in the room, Emily pretended she was asleep.

Sharon stopped by the bed looking at her for a few minutes, she didn't blink once. Softly she whispered in her ear, "Emily? Are you awake?" but Emily still wouldn't move "Emily?..." Sharon seated on her side of the bed. "Emily I know you're not sleeping, your foot is still under the blanket," ever since she was a kid Emily had this thing of sleeping on her stomach and her left foot would always fall out of the bed and blankets when she was deeply sleeping. Every time Sharon went to check on her kids sleep she put it back under the blankets and every time Emily woke up it was out again, and then complaining she was cold.

"People with age forget stuff, is that possible you remember every little single detail of how I sleep, breath and walk?" Emily turned on the light and sat on the bed next to her mother.

"Yes, it is very much possible. You're my _baby_ and I remember everything about you," she took a small pause "and your brother, actually both your brothers." Sharon looked at her with a questioning expression, "So, how is he?" her daughter knew she understood she had been to see Andy, but in favor of the lie her brothers had created for her she tried to mask it.

"Oh Peter is good. A little bit nervous but I am as well, we just… you know stayed together one last time as not married, you know… like… that…" unfortunately for Emily, Sharon didn't believe one bit of her words. Firstly, because never before she had any problem of sharing the word 'sex' with her mother or asking her questions, and secondly because it didn't have sense since they had just seen each other the whole day and the one before and the one before too.

Sharon arched her right eyebrows while folding her arms, "I know you've been to see Andy. I smell his scent."

"You smell it? What are you a bloodhound? Okay," Emily let go of a deep breath. "He's not good, Mom! He's a total mess and his house too, I don't know what to say, it's like he's not trying to be good, you know what I mean?"

Sharon unfolded her arms and grabbed her daughter's arm with a hand, "He's not drinking, is he?" She was seriously worried that the situation would have been heavy on Andy to make him fall again. He had been fighting for a long time not to go back to drinking, but one night during a very intense and deep confession session with Sharon, he had admitted that in the beginning after a year he fell for it again and later on after 12 or 13 years he felt the desire to get back into it again when his son refused to go visit him for the weekend on his birthday. He hadn't done it then, but the desire was there and he had needed a serious help to resist it. Sharon wasn't sure how much their dispute had touched him, she knew what it did to her, but she couldn't know how he felt and was too scared of the damages it could have done. As days had passed, she was convinced more and more it was all on her fault and that she had to repair to it somehow but hadn't figured out how, without completely giving up her pride. But she missed him, she missed Andy every moment of every day. She missed how he would always let her go first, either it was out of the door, in or out of the elevator, and he would always move the chair for her, and even if they had been spending more and more nights together, and Sharon had told him to consider that his place too, he would still act like a guest. More than anything else she had missed a lot when she would roll over in the bed to end up in his arms, and he seemed to be always ready to catch her, and she would make a space for herself in his embrace. She missed the warmth of his body and the sweet stroking of his hand on her arm and most of all it had been so hard at work, for every time she had lifted her head to find his desk empty instead of that beautiful smile he always had for her.

"No, he's not. I questioned him the same thing. He said that he hadn't. And his replies are good and focused and his breath didn't smell like alcohol. A lot of other bad things but not alcohol," Emily crossed her legs turning towards her mother. " _Mommy_ , I think you need to talk to him sooner or later. To tell him how you feel. I am sorry I went to talk to him behind your back, I know you are incredibly mad at me right now, but I have seen you suffering this whole week through. You love him, we both know this. The thing is, why doesn't he seem to know it?" Emily left her mother with this thought, she kissed her goodnight and went back to sleep. In the darkness of the room, Sharon tried to go back to the past two years and how she tried to show Andy she was in love with him, but didn't really say with _words_. It was a scratch to the head that went with her for the whole night, letting just few hours to sleep a little before the wedding.

 **Sunday Morning**

Outside the dressing room Ricky, Rusty and Gus were hearing screaming from their mother and sister inside the dressing room.

"Should we check on them?" asked Gus putting his hand on the pommel of the door.

Ricky stopped him immediately, "Are you crazy? It's like jumping in the lions' cage covered in meat." He was exaggerating as always but Rusty got his point.

"Yeah, let them deal with it, let's go and sit down elsewhere, very far away from here." He took Gus by the arm and pushed him away from the door. Ricky put his ear on the door but moved away immediately when he heard another scream from his mom and steps walking in his direction.

Sharon shut the door behind her and moved nervously away. Soon after the door opened again and Emily came out with her hair half tied and still in her robe, "You inside!" she pointed to Ricky and then inside the room and without saying more she walked in again and sat down on her chair.

Ricky was really nervous, he wasn't quite sure why she wanted him inside, he couldn't be of any help with dress or hair, but he had an idea of what the screaming had been about when he saw his now _ex_ -girlfriend in the room as well. His first instinct was to walk out but his sister blocked him with a look that he often saw on his mother's face when he did something bad.

"So I'm coming to know just **right now** , that the two of you broke up because of some problems? Because when I asked **both of you** some days ago if there was any problem, you **both** said it was all fine, help me figure out what was hard to understand in my questioning, was it the simplicity of the sentence or what?" Emily was very mad, easily to see by the look on her face and the fact that her pale skin had turned red.

"Em, we just…" Ricky tried to start talking and explaining

"No sweetness, what the hell is going on. It's my damn day and my bride maid and the best man who are supposed to walk together down the aisle before me, are fighting with each other," she stood up again and started to walk nervously through the room. "And what about the baby? She's pregnant, for God sake, what do you want to do with that?"

Both Ricky and Ally didn't have a fast reply. Emily was on a roll, angry and talking fast, she wouldn't even let them the time of a breath to answer. It was her wedding day, she was supposed to be nice and calm, getting ready with her mother helping her and smiling and laughing with her for the last moments of "freedom". Instead, by accident, she found out from the mouth of her best friend and maid of honor, that she had broke up recently to her boyfriend, who happened to be Emily's brother and who had to walk with her down the aisle before the bride. Everything in her head was screwing up badly. And after coming to learn this thing, she also learned that her mother knew everything and hadn't told her a single word; when Ally had started to accuse the break up on Ricky and Sharon intruded that she knew the story from another point of view. "I don't know what is or was the problem of your break up, I don't know if I really want to know, but you are not fifteen and this is not high school, we are all adults in here and when I told you that it was a **very bad idea** to hook up with my little brother, you told me you hadn't met in your life a man that was as good as he is." Emily looked right through Ally's eyes "And when I told you that I didn't like you getting that close to my best friend, because I didn't want to have to chose at some point, you told me that was not going to be a problem because you would have been together for the rest of your lives," she looked in the direction of her brother with a look that scared him so much to move his eyes away from her, "So we are at that point now, what are we going to do?"

Ally was standing in front of Emily, silent and trying to say something that she knew would not be taken the right way. Ricky couldn't take his eyes away from her, thinking how beautiful she was, even though she broke his heart, he really loved her and in that moment it was like nothing had happened and they still were together. "I am sorry Emily; you shouldn't worry though. We are going to be good and civil to each other. You only have to care about your day and getting to the point of marrying your man, we will… figure it out somehow. We can sit next to each other for a day and be okay, can't we?" Ricky asked Ally about it and she simply nodded to answer his question.

Letting out a breath, Emily dismissed Ricky asking him to call back Sharon in to finish helping her and eventually apologize for having attacked her so harshly. She was aware that her mother hadn't told her a word about it not to ruin her day, but nonetheless she felt left out from it and kept in the dark from something that wasn't just a minor thing but a huge one in her life; her brother and her best friend had started a relationship which came to an end just the week before her wedding. It was a huge problem for her, it was exactly what she was scared would happen the first time they made it clear they were having a story.

Emily sat down on the stool in front of the make-up counter and looked at herself in the mirror, "I'm a mess!"

Ally went closer to her, trying to help with the hair. She wasn't as good as Sharon but she tried to make up for the incident she had just caused. They started to talk a little bit and for a short time it seemed like the old times, when they would sit down on the floor of Ally's bedroom and talk about this or that guy from school and writing their diaries. Ally hadn't necessarily been the closest of Emily's friends, but she still considered her a best friend, one of the three she had, the far away one to whom she would talk by phone every day to catch up on what's going on here and there. Then she had her other two best friends in New York, one with whom she shared a house with for five years and one from her dancing group. They were the closest and the best of best for her, those she would always count on to make her laugh when she was sad, and bring her back to Earth when she was flying too high with thoughts and fantasy. None of those friends were perfect and they all had their scratches in the past and Emily knew she was probably the most stubborn and impossible to deal with of them all, but they were her best friends and she wouldn't want to lose one or trade them for anything in the world. Not until that moment, at least when Ally let slip out of her mouth that her baby wasn't Emily's brother's but another man's.

When Ally realized what she had just said it was too late to retreat it and she watched Emily slowly turning to meet her eyes and stand up. In the same moment Sharon had just entered the door, "You take all your stuff and leave this place in this exact minute, because if I see your face there on the aisle you bet I'll walk that fast only to slap you!" she was steady and unshakeable, it seemed quite like she wasn't breathing.

"Emily, I…" Ally tried to speak

"You don't say a word. You don't have any right to say a word. You slept with another man while in a relationship with my brother! If I see you again around one of us, my mother will have sadly to put up one of my photos on the white board at Major Crimes as a suspect in your murder. Stay away from me and don't get one step closer to my brother either, not a single step, you get it?" What Sharon had told Rusty, was true. Emily and Ricky would always fight with each other, and mock each other, and call names to each other, but never one of them had failed to defend and protect the other. Despite the initial hard times of bringing a new baby home and the few sporadic episodes in which Emily tried to "assassinate" her little brother, asking if she could clean him by putting him in the washing machine or wondering if he could fly like baby birds from the roof, she had always been overly protective towards him. Sometimes even Sharon had to tell her to let go of him and let him do his own mistakes, but she would take her mother's place when she wasn't around, and Ricky didn't enjoy this thing but never admitted that he actually liked to be the attention of the two women in his life. On his part, Ricky had always been very protective of Emily as well, especially when she brought home her boyfriends and Jack wasn't around. Ricky felt the need to honor his status of "man of the house" by being incredibly scary towards the boys and threaten them of death if they hurt Emily somehow. A threat to which they all believed considering he was growing up as twice the size of Emily or themselves.

Sharon stood by the door, saying nothing and watching her daughter leaning against the counter tired and without any strength left for this situation. Her first instinct was to go to her and help her sit down while playing with her hair to fix them. She started to brush them slowly and stop her curls with clips, eventually she would have filled the curls with small flowers. "Mommy?" Sharon hummed "Would you be my maid of honor?" When Sharon had finished to fix one side of her hair she leaned closer to her daughter's face and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Yes!" she smiled and kissed her again, "And thank you, for your brother." Sharon smiled gently to her daughter. It wasn't many times she assisted to Emily defending Ricky so it was heartwarming to her to see it now. It hadn't been easy in the years to manage two little kids by herself and they were so different to each other, it was really a good thing to see that she had been able to pass to them that sense of family and respect and love that she always had with her brother and sister.

Emily watched at her mother standing behind her through the counter glass, "We should do something to your hair," she stood up to watch her full front, "If Andy arrives we can't have you like this? He has to die thinking what he lost in a whole week." They both laughed. Sharon's last thought was to make herself pretty for Andy, she was even sure he wasn't going to show up, it made no sense to do anything particular to her hair for the occasion. Tiding them up with a clip behind it was more than enough, she wasn't going to be the focus of the day anyway, no one would have put an eye on her, only on her daughter. It was her day.

She made Emily sit down again to move and finish the hair on the other side, they would have both needed to hurry and get dressed. It was not going to be that much time till the ceremony started, and with all the fights and the annoyances time flew by so fast. When Sharon was done with her hair it was time for make-up but first Emily insisted on fixing her mother's hair, "I am the bride, they can wait for me!" she said when her mother insisted they didn't have time. For her wedding Emily had already used a lot more money than she had wanted, so hiring someone for her make-up and hair seemed to her a total waste of more money. She had been doing it all by herself for a long time and having a couple of friends in the business had helped to figure out how she wanted to style the whole thing. It wasn't that hard to explain it to Sharon and let her do it, she only had to tie her curls that her friends had done before, than for the make-up she would have provided it herself as she also didn't want to use that much. In her whole life, Emily had never been a vain person to desire and use make-up from her mother or else, and she was put on so much on stage, that every occasion she wasn't working she would prefer to go without any than put on and stress her skin.

"Would you just stay put, please?" Sharon wasn't easy to insist on doing her stuff and leave her hair like that. She would constantly move trying to slip away from her daughter's hands.

The end result though was perfect. Emily had brushed her mother's hair and moved them all to her right side, a small braid was tiding her curls and she placed a flower clip to keep the whole thing together. On her forehead a tuft of hair was partly covering the top corner of her eye and falling gently on the side of her face. "Oh my goodness Emily, it's beautiful!" Sharon was looking at herself in the mirror and she barely recognized herself like that. She had always enjoyed taking care of her hair and make-up and she had a lot of care for her skin too and a certain pleasure in dressing accordingly to the situations and her body shape, but never had she felt so beautiful before. She looked at her daughter's expression through the glass, it was amused and naughty, "He won't show up, _baby_!" she knew that Emily was thinking she was going to be gorgeous to Andy, but she also knew that he would have never seen her like this. Still Sharon hadn't managed to find the right words to talk to him and by now she was sure that it was over already.

Emily leaned over her shoulder, "Who knows? Maybe he will and if he doesn't we will send him a picture like _that's what you lost man_ ," they both burst into laughter and it felt nice to Sharon to laugh over the situation for a change.

Having a look at her watch, Sharon noticed it was getting late and they both needed to get dressed and ready and as now she had an all new role to play in the day, she had to channel her inner calm and do it at her best.

"Alright, I'm going to check once more everything is fine outside and I'll be back," Sharon came out from behind the screen leaving everyone speechless, "What?" she looked at herself in the mirror trying to spot any flaws that was leaving them like this. Emily and her friends who were helping to dress, all couldn't say more than _wow_.

"You look… gorgeous, Mom!" Sharon was wearing a very simple long dress, it had no particular filling or laceworks. Just a plain purple dress, with one strap on a side and none on the other.

"Enough with that," Sharon patted gently on her daughter's lower back intimating to hurry in getting dressed, "We are focusing on you today, I'll be right back!" She left the room, closing the door behind her and let out a deep breath. When she entered the other room everything seemed settled as it should have been, all flowers were placed, the orchestra was ready and a very nervous groom was talking to her son. She waved at Ricky if all was okay and when she had confirmation she came back to her daughter.

 **-O-O-O-O-**

Sitting at the table, Sharon Raydor was absorbed in her thoughts. Never would she have imagined that her daughter would have married. The ceremony had been perfect and without any unexpected interruption, at last Rusty had calmed down and done just a fine job in walking with Emily and giving her away, Ricky had been very happy to know that his companion for his moment was to be his mother and not his ex-girlfriend and Sharon had genuinely tried to hide the tears of pride for her daughter. Emily had asked her to at least wait to be at the restaurant to cry, instead of embarrassing her on the altar.

There had been very fugitive moments of sadness in her heart, thinking that it was everything that she wanted to share with Andy. They had never talk about marriage, but maybe it would have ended up there and she would have been happy to officially declare she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. Watching her children dancing all together was making her touched.

Years before, when she decided to adopt Rusty, things had been awkward in the beginning. Ricky showed to be a little jealous of his new brother, just like Emily had been when Ricky was born, and Emily was concerned that her divorce and the adoption were coming all too soon together. And here they were. Her newlywed daughter, her grown up little boy and that boy who entered her life just few years back, but she came to love him like she had given birth to him as well. They were all standing by each other, all dancing together and all being happy.

Sharon felt again the need to call Andy and tell him to come to her, she wanted him by her side more than anything else. She picked up her phone and decided to send a message instead, in this case he would have decided by himself what to do.

 _Andy, I have given this thing its time but it hasn't helped much. I should have told you before and I was maybe too scared but know that I_ she paused typing to think through what to write, re-reading back and trying to sound cool and not pitiful.

"You know you'll have to send that if you want me to read it, right?" all of a sudden she turned to find Andy Flynn, with a piece of cake on a plate in his hand and taking a sit next to her. He looked charming in his black tuxedo and a purple tie.

"You are… here," he nodded with his mouth full, "and you're wearing a purple tie!" Sharon pointed to his chest.

Andy let the bite go down his throat and cleared his voice, "Well I had a bird telling me you wore purple. I mean we want to look like a couple we should dress accordingly, don't you think?" He had another bite and made a funny groan of approval, "This cake is fantastic, have you had some?" He offered her a piece which she declined gently.

"Emily, she sent a picture or what?" she asked

"Yeah a picture of you getting naked, your daughter is really dirty!" Sharon opened her eyes wide and moved fast to him to catch his phone.

"Oh my goodness delete it immediately, Andy!" He took his phone in his other hand and raised high where she couldn't reach. Sharon found herself with a hand on his thigh, their bodies extremely close to each other. Andy could feel her breath getting warmer as she realized how little space was between their faces.

"Make me," he whispered. He had wanted to kiss her as much as she had wanted him to, but if he did she sure would have stepped back saying it wasn't the appropriate situation among people at her daughter's wedding. "What was it that I had to know?" he referred to her text message.

Sharon looked him in the eyes. He was there, he surely wasn't there because Emily Raydor was getting married and he couldn't miss the event. He was there because he wanted to be there with her, his girlfriend, the woman to whom he said _I love you_ without being scared or hesitant. Without thinking twice she kissed him. He tasted like chocolate and strawberries and **Andy**. She loved to kiss him, she loved him. She loved that he would always smile at her, no matter what the situation they were in, to show her support and love at any time. She loved that he would make jokes about women and then realize that she was there, and maybe it was a little bit offensive and would have tried to make up for it, she actually loved that he was able to be a complete idiot and the most amazing man, it was real and he was genuinely both of them, and she loved it. She loved that he had thought about matching colors for the wedding and that he actually was there at last without her to call for him. She loved the warmth of his kisses and of his hands stroking on her back while they were kissing, and that he was gentle and soft, not greedy to have more than what she would give him. **She loved him**.

"I love you," when they separated Sharon put her head on his shoulder, inhaling his scent and finally whispering those three magical words.

Andy smiled, it was a long and painful wait but it was worth it. That moment could have lasted his whole life for what he could care, it was just perfect to live with her in his arms and in his life.

A soft voice interrupted their moment, "I am sorry to interrupt you and glad to see you're back together but," Emily was standing in front of them pointing the group of people waiting a few step away from them, "it's picture time!". Sharon hadn't realize how much time had passed since Andy arrived and was mortified that they had to wait for her, she clasped her hand with Andy's and moved towards the group.

They took photos of the married couple, with each one family members, a couple of Emily with her brothers and far too many with Emily and Sharon for the latter's taste.

"Wait, there's Andy" Emily shouted. They were getting ready for the final picture of both families and bride maids and best men all together and Andy was staying in a corner behind the photographer. He took a few pictures with Emily because she had asked and one with both her and Sharon, but he felt it wasn't fitting for that photo. Emily wasn't his daughter, as much as Sharon had expressed to have wanted so considering Jack's lousy parenting skills and Andy's good efforts to be a better father for his children, and he didn't want to intrude on their family moment.

Emily walked to him. "No, Emily. Really it's a family portrait I don't want to…" she took his hand and walked him to the line just next to Sharon and behind Rusty.

"It's **my** family portrait, and you are to be part of it!" He could easily recognize Sharon's determination in her daughter's words. That little girl who went to the precinct a few times with her mother, and who had asked him to _make her fly high to the moon_ , had now grown into a beautiful woman, determined, precise and looking just like her mother. That woman had just made him feel like part of a family that it wasn't his since the beginning, but it was going to be his until the end of his days.

Sharon looked at the man who was smiling and she smiled back, feeling reassured that everything was going to be okay from now on: her daughter had married, both her sons had contained their own preoccupations and dealing with them and her man was standing by her side, accepting her with those flaws that he said not to exist at all, and being **in love**. She had all reasons to smile with her lips and her eyes, in a _family portrait_ that was going to stay forever in her heart.

 **THE END**

* * *

 _ **Side note:** I know that the 'Andy with Emily' seemed a little rude, but he had to play in favor of the theory that he could be drunk, and drunk people are not always nice and funny people. _

I want to thank everyone for sticking with me, reviewing, commenting and waiting for next chapter. Your support has been a blast and it makes me confident on writing more.

Thanks again to my beta for her fine work and being so picky to ask me questions as she's not familiar with the series or the characters and needed insight to understand it better. And also to Elena for the beautiful cover that still astonishes me every time I watch at it.

 **Thank you to all of you!**


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